This invention relates to improved vehicular body panels and structural members suitable for use on automobiles and other vehicles and to methods for producing the same.
Because of the increasing emphasis on producing lower weight automobiles in order, among other things, to conserve energy, considerable effort has been directed toward developing aluminum alloy products suited to automotive application. Especially desirable would be a single aluminum alloy product useful in several different automotive applications. Such would offer scrap reclamation advantages in addition to the obvious economies in simplifying metal inventories.
To serve in a wide number of automotive applications, an aluminum alloy product needs to possess good forming characteristics to facilitate shaping, bending and the like, without cracking, tearing, lueders' lines or excessive wrinkling or press loads, and yet be possessed of adequate strength. Since forming is typically carried out at room temperature, formability at room or low temperatures is often of principal concern. In addition, the alloy should have high bending capability without cracking or exhibiting orange peel, since often the structural products are fastened or joined to each other by hemming or seaming.
Various aluminum alloys and sheet products thereof have been considered for automotive applications, including both heat treatable and non-heat treatable alloys. Heat treatable alloys offer an advantage in that they can be produced at a given lower strength level in the solution treated and quenched temper which can be later increased by artificial aging after the panel is shaped. This offers easier forming at a lower strength level which is thereafter increased for the end use. Further, the thermal treatment to effect artificial aging can sometimes be achieved during a paint bake treatment, so that a separate step for the strengthening treatment is not required. Non-heat treatable alloys, on the other hand, are typically strengthened by strain hardening, as by cold rolling. These strain or work hardening effects are usually diminished during thermal exposures such as paint bake or cure cycles, which can partially anneal or relax the strain hardening effects.
One heat treatable alloy sheet product which has been considered is alloy 6151 (referring to the Aluminum Association registration number) whose registered composition range is, by weight, 0.6 to 1.2% Si, 0.45 to 0.8% Mg, 0.15 to 0.35% Cr, balance aluminum, with maximum limits on other elements as follows: 1.0% Fe, 0.35% Cu, 0.20% Mn and 0.25% Zn. However, using a sheet product of typical composition for alloy 6151 containing 0.85% Si, 0.56% Mg, 0.19% Cr, 0.48% Fe, 0.19% Cu, 0.20% Zn and 0.04% Ti, numerous problems were encountered, as forming attempts were hampered by cracking and the desired combinations of strength and formability were not realized.
Two other aluminum alloy sheet products have been given serious consideration for use in automotive applications, namely, alloys 2036 and 5182, and, in fact, both have seen limited use. Alloy 2036 is a heat treatable alloy containing 2.2 to 3.0% Cu, 0.10 to 0.40% Mn, 0.30 to 0.60% Mg and a maximum of 0.50% each for both Si and Fe as impurities, the remainder aluminum. It was used in the outer panel mainly because it had a yield strength of about 27 to 28 ksi which is comparable to that of steel, thus providing dent resistance similar to steel. Alloy 2036, however, is not possessed of sufficient workability to consistently form the more intricate shapes desired for some inner panel applications. Aluminum alloy 5182, a non-heat treatable alloy containing 4.0 to 5.0% Mg, 0.20 to 0.50% Mn, balance aluminum with, as impurities, maxima of 0.20% Si, 0.35% Fe, 0.15% Cu and 0.10% Cr and having a yield strength of about 17 ksi, was used for the inner support panel because of its high level of formability. However, it lacked sufficient strength and dent resistance to serve as the outer panel. Hence, the two alloy panel received considerable attention with the stronger and more dent resistant 2036 alloy serving as the outer panel and the more formable 5182 alloy serving as the inner panel. However, this particular two alloy system had several drawbacks. For example, during paint baking, the strength of the outer panel is only increased very slightly. Also, the baking can have an annealing effect on the inner support panel which for all practical purposes is a strain hardenable alloy. Thus, the baking can act to reduce the strength of the inner panel while only slightly increasing the strength of the outer panel, thereby sometimes weakening the overall dual panel structure.
Another alloy system useful for vehicular structural members and body panels is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,578 which discloses an aluminum base alloy consisting essentially of, by weight, 0.4 to 1.2% Si, 0.4 to 1.1% Mg, 0.1 to 0.6% Cu, 0.05 to 0.35% Fe, and at least one element from the group consisting of 0.2 to 0.8% Mn, 0.1 to 0.3% Cr and 0.05 to 0.15% Zr, the balance aluminum and incidental elements and impurities. This system provided alloys having improved levels of strength and formability over prior alloys.
Also, SAE Technical Paper 830096 entitled "An Optimized Aluminum Alloy (X6111) for Auto Body Sheet Applications" suggests an alloy for auto body sheet having 0.85% Si, 0.75% Cu, 0.20% Fe, 0.72% Mg and 0.20% Mn.
However, the Aluminum Association notes with respect to designing and producing tools in "Data on Aluminum Alloy Properties and Characteristics for Automotive Application", ANSI H35.1-1972, that if tools and parts are designed to form aluminum sheet satisfactorily, then steel sheet will form with no problem. But tooling designed for steel often will not produce satisfactory parts in aluminum. Thus, the use of aluminum alloy body panels in automotive applications normally necessitates redesigned tooling to form parts substantially identical to the comparable steel parts. This requirement, of course, is detrimental in that it is a serious obstacle with respect to the economics of using aluminum alloy body panels.
The present invention overcomes many of the prior art problems and provides aluminum base alloy products for deep drawn components which permit the forming of such into automotive components substantially identical to steel components formed in the same dies.